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Hey everyone! It’s been a while! And that fact is where the announcement comes in – I might be missing posts a little more often right now. I do love sharing my life with you all! My meal preps, fitness tips and so much more.

But part of taking care of yourself is working to find balance. And lately, well, my life has been pretty out of balance. I’m hard at work on my jewelry business and trying to build more of a career in fitness. Along with that, I’m still working overnights at my “regular” job and trying to maintain some time with Draz as well. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave me nearly as much time for the blog as I would like.

I am going to try to still put out 2 posts a week, but I’m going to ask that you bear with me while I try to figure out my new schedule and responsibilities! Hopefully at some point I will be able to leave my overnights job and have a little more time available.

Now on to the second part of this post – the downside of weekly meal prep!

You all know that I absolutely love my meal prep. It helps me set up for success each week, save money and have more time! I’m able to plan well to hit my macros, feel full every day and keep my stress level down while I deal with my busy life. But there are some downsides as well. One big one is when your meal prep doesn’t go the way you hoped it would!

That is just what happened this week. Sometimes I will have one recipe I’m not thrilled with. This week I had the bad luck of all 3 recipes not turning out well! Add on to this that I didn’t check the macros before planning and so my carbs were over every day. And I didn’t make enough food for the week. So all in all, not a great week for food at our house!

But this is one of the risks when doing meal prep. There might be the occasion when you don’t like anything you cooked. Now, of course, this can happen any given week that you cook, even if you aren’t prepping. But there is something discouraging about knowing that all of your food is ready for the week and you don’t like any of it!

This is one of the reasons I encourage people to only test 1-2 new recipes any given week. This is usually a rule I stick to myself as well, for just this reason. That way, if something doesn’t turn out well, you have other options that you do like! It won’t save you from eating the dish you don’t like, but at least it’s not for every meal haha.

So, no recipes to share with you this week, because I’m not going to subject you to that! Instead, a reminder to try to pace yourself with new recipes. And a peak into my kitchen, showing you that even someone who meal preps every week has weeks that go wrong! It’s all part of the learning process!

Hey everyone! I’m so excited to bring you this month’s Finding Fitness interview! Di is so open and honest, and with over 20 years in the fitness industry, she has a lot of knowledge to share! Enjoy!

Background: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Oh boy this could be a blog post in of itself.. in a nutshell: I’m a 45 year old woman living in California, though I was born and raised in England. I moved to the USA in 2001 with my husband and we became citizens 3 years ago. We have been married 18 years, no kids (more on that one later), and have one dalmatian. Fun fact: we got married in a hot air balloon! That already tells you we’re non-traditional, and have a quirky sense of humor right?

How did your fitness journey start? What motivated the change? Along with that, what has kept you interested?

I guess it started with school. I wasn’t on any sports teams but I grew up in the 80’s in the era of Jane Fonda and fondly remember doing her workout videos in my living room with my leotard, tights and legwarmers. We had a weekly aerobics class after school and I grew to love group fitness classes. Post-school me and my BFF would go to weekly classes at the local fitness center. Just once or twice a week if it fit into our work schedule (we worked shifts).

For me it wasn’t so much a change in fitness journey but life in general. When I was 23 I got a callback after my annual well woman check. I had some ‘abnormal cells’ on my pap results. After a whirlwind of more tests, biopsies, and laser surgery I was declared “clear” but it was a ‘wake-up call’. I was in a job I hated (retail management) and they say if you find something you love to do you’ll never work another day in your life… so what did I LOVE to do? The only thing I could think of was the group fitness classes! In 1996 at 24 years old I switched careers and earned my group fitness certification and I’ve worked in fitness since.

What has been your biggest challenge in your fitness journey and how have you dealt with it?

When we moved to the USA in 2001 I wasn’t able to work as I didn’t have a work visa. That year was the year of the terror attacks and understandably all visa/green-card applications came to a screeching halt so it took us 7 years to get our green-cards. During that time I gained 25lbs. To say we fully embraced the standard American diet would be an understatement. That combined with moving less (I was playing World of Warcraft with friends), and being so far from family. I wasn’t sure I wanted to return to a fitness career but that possibility was there, so I set about cleaning up my diet, I started running and working out again, and dropped the 25lbs. In 2009 I started working in the fitness industry again.

Have you had any setbacks since starting your fitness journey? If so, how did you deal with them?

I mentioned we don’t have children. One reason for that is that I have a hereditary condition called Polycystic Kidney Disease [PKD]. Cysts grow in and on your kidneys, reducing function. The chances of passing that to my children is 50% and as the condition has no cure, and the treatment is basically eventually dialysis/transplant. That’s a big risk that we weren’t prepared to take so we simply opted out of parenthood.
With the help of diet and exercise I’d been pretty healthy since my cancer scare but 3 years ago I had my first bout of symptoms due to PKD. I was actually teaching a Les Mills CXworx class and the last exercise was prone back extensions. An exercise that was so simple right? I felt “something” pushing into the floor from my abdomen. I came home and slept the rest of the day. I made an appointment with my nephrologist we ran tests. My left kidney was “growing”, as I now had more cysts, and cysts on my liver too. The enlarged kidney has continued to cause me issues and I’ve had to make significant changes. I stopped teaching CXworx, and BodyCombat. As much as I loved the classes they continued to aggravated my left kidney due to movement speed, rotation, and compression. Honestly it was all a “wake-up” call for me. I’ve seen my family members on dialysis, my mum and uncle both have transplants, and I still have an aunt and cousin needing transplants. I could continue to stress my body and cause more damage to my body… or choose to listen to it. I chose the latter. That’s when I began moving into the current era of my fitness journey.

What achievement are you the most proud of?

I started my career in fitness in 1996 and during the last 20 years I’ve done so many forms of fitness. Spinning, running, cycling, weights, pilates, step, aqua, Zumba, Les Mills… but none bring me to the same space as Yoga. I started teaching yoga at a gym in 2010 but in 2014 I took the plunge and did my RYT200. I took my first yoga class at 13 and 30 years later I was teaching it!
Goals are progressive though, when I achieve one I take a break then start looking for others. I’ve run multiple 5k races including two dressed as Santa and the color run was fun! I’ve also run a couple of 10ks, a 1/2 marathon, all of which lead to a few duathlons, a cycling event and and in 2016 I did my first triathlon. As someone who hates swimming that was a task. I’m always the most proud of my last goal, and for me that was the triathlon. Ask me again in 5 years!

Outside of the physical, what have been some significant changes brought on by your fitness journey?

While I did lose 25lbs the fact that I have PKD makes this a health journey not just fitness. Health care providers always ask what blood pressure medications I take as high BP is a symptom of PKD. At 45 most people my age with PKD are on at least one medication. Usually for high blood pressure. Thanks to diet and exercise I’m still at stage 2 of the disease and I want to stay here as long as I can.

What are you working towards now? What are your goals and dreams, fitness-wise?

Right now I’m working towards my RYT500 for my own practice and teaching, and my e-RYT200 to become a yoga educator. I’ve been helping with the current yoga teacher trainees this year and it’s something I’ve found I have a passion for.

What does a typical training week look like?

This has changed a LOT over the last 5 years. I used to actively instruct classes (Les Mills etc) but now since switching class formats I coach more, which leaves me more time and energy for my own workouts. I now only teach 7-10 classes a week, have private clients 4 days a week, and coach a couple of clients online.

Honestly I don’t have a “typical week”, it’s an ongoing schedule I tweak depending on my goals (last year I did a lot of cardio for the triathlon) but this is the current training week for my current goals.

Everyday – I walk my dog 3 miles in the morning, then 30 mins in the afternoon and 20 in the evening. So I get about 2 hours of walking per day. I also try to get 30 mins of yoga and meditation daily. Plus I move a fair amount in my daily life teaching and interacting with clients. I usually try and get in 2 other HIIT cardio sessions in during the week beside my weekly spin class. Due to my schedule though, this changes. Right now it’s Tuesday and Sunday as I work early Wednesdays and Thursdays. My goal is to start running with my dog again a couple of mornings a week.

What does an average day of eating look like for you?

Again due to my schedule my work days don’t have any consistency. I find meal prepping to be so important for staying on track and would encourage anyone with shift work or lack of time to do the same. Busy days are:

Breakfast is usually a smoothie with spinach, berries, bananas, almond milk, flaxseed meal and protein powder

Lunch is something I usually made ahead of time. Usually a burritto bowl with tons of veggies, beans, salsa, guacamole

Dinner in the week we eat late. Typically we sit down to eat around 7.30-8pm. Typical meals for us include tacos, burger’n’fries, meatloaf, or our favorite: curry.

Snacks: Tofu icecream, pancakes, or dateballs are things I snack on. Depends on the day and activity level.

In case I didn’t mention it already I’m vegan. I’ve been vegan since June 2013 and I was vegetarian for 20 years prior to that. My husband is vegetarian. One of our current favorite things is a sandwich with Benevolent Bacon, tofurky roast slices, and melted daiya cheddar slice on Eureka seeds the day bread. So good and 38g protein!

Do you take any supplements? If so, could you tell us a little about what ones and why? If not, why not?

If you’d asked me this 5 years ago I’d have said no. However since my PKD progressed I’m not processing some vitamins efficiently.
Currently I take: Vitamin D3 as that showed up on a nephrology bloodwork done 2 years ago (it’s processed by the kidneys); B12 (as I am vegan), and protein powders (I love plantfusion, SunWarrior and Nuzest).
For hot days, long runs, or intense cardio I also use electrolyte replacement drinks, I like Nuun, Emergen-C or as a push just regular gatorade. Dehydration is not good for my kidneys so this is something I pay close attention to!

What is your favorite exercise? Your least favorite?

Favorite: deadlifts, seriously I love deadlifts. I just think there is something about bad ass about deadlifts, and cleans, clean and jerk/press. Deadlifts are my favorite though.
Least: swimming. I did my first triathlon in 2016 and I did learn to like it a little more, but I’ve never once in my life just thought “you know what? let’s go swimming!”. Plus the triathlon was ocean swim, double ugh!

What do you do if you find your motivation lacking?

For me the toughest times are those times when I am low energy due to hormones. But that’s when you make results, on the bad workouts, not the everyday or the good ones. On the ones that suck. I tell myself I just have to do it for 10 minutes. If I still don’t want to after 10 minutes then I can stop. After 10 minutes I’m usually really into the workout. If I’m not, then I listen to my body and see if it’s body or mind. If the body is willing I’ll hold out for 30 minutes. If it’s the body telling me to stop, then I listen.

How do you balance fitness with work/life/social/etc? How do you “find the time” to workout?

I’m not gonna lie, this has been a struggle for me in the past. When I first began teaching group fitness classes I was actively teaching 20-25 classes a week! It doesn’t leave a lot for your own workouts. Now I focus more on being active in the day walking the dog, gardening, etc, and when I see friends we often opt for walking/hiking to catch up. As I work in both a gym and yoga studio I get free membership at both but don’t use it nearly as much as I should. Really though it’s about making an appointment and scheduling it into your day, then making a decision to do it. You wouldn’t cancel on the dentist or doctor unless you were sick, workouts should be the same!

What are your top 3 tips for someone just starting their fitness journey?

Just start! Now. Not on Monday, not on the first, not when the stars align and everything is “perfect” conditions but now!

Make a smart goal. So you want to “get fit”. What does that mean to you? Is it weight loss, cholesterol numbers, lowering your blood pressure, dropping body fat, or losing a dress size? You can’t shoot an arrow without a target.

Anything else you want to share?

The biggest excuses I hear all the time as a trainer are “I don’t have time” and “I can’t afford it”. Fitness doesn’t have to take a chunk out of your day or cost anything. Yes it can be 100% free. I have a free health & fitness planner on my website, and a free 31 day bootcamp (with workout videos) and I have a lot more at-home workouts you can do anywhere on my YouTube Channel.

Sara here: Di, thank you so much for joining me this week! Everyone, I hope you enjoyed this month’s Finding Fitness and getting to know Di a little better! You should definitely go check out her blog and social media!

Di is a personal trainer, wellness coach, and yoga teacher with over 20 years experience working in the fitness industry. Her passion is all things fitness, health and nutrition. When not working she can usually be found walking her dog, gardening, or out riding her dirtbike (Honda CRF230F). Due to family being spread all over the World she also loves to travel. Di is also a closet geek, she taught herself HTML, javascript and video editing, and loves Sci Fi.

Hey everyone! I am SO excited to bring you this week’s meal prep! So I always tell you that meal prep should work for you. Well, this week I’m showing you the changes that I am making to my meal prep to make it work for me!

You might know that I’ve been using the If It Fits Your Macros method (IIFYM) method for the past few months to try to help my eating stay on track. While I have been loving it, it hasn’t quite been working for me as well as I had hoped. Basically? I was hungry A LOT of the time! I was feeling pretty good when I woke up and I did feel leaner, but I would get hungry between most snacks and meals. And not a little hungry either….REALLY hungry. I tried changing up snacks and meals, but nothing was really helping.

Around this same time, I had come to the realization that I needed some help if I want to get to my fitness goals. So I started looking for a personal trainer (more on that coming soon!) I checked out a lot of wonderful ladies, most of whom you have met here through my Finding Fitness series! When I ended up deciding on Jen from Burpees 4 Breakfast, I knew that I wanted to chat with her about nutrition too.

Jen helped so much and after some conversation, reworked my macros to give me something different to try! She cut down on my carbs and increased my protein and fat intake and I gotta say I’m loving it so far! It’s too soon to see if it will make much of a difference on my fitness progress, but I definitely feel more satiated than I have in quite a while.

So for now at least, my meal preps will be changing to reflect this! I loved this week’s meal prep so much and I really think you will too. Enjoy!

Ok, to get started, snacks. You might notice that I didn’t take my usual photo of my snacks and salads. Well, I’m not going to be making the salads for a while! I still LOVE jar salads as a method of prepping salad for your lunch, but I was having a hard time hitting my protein goals with the salads. Plus, honestly, I’ve been eating salads for lunch almost every day for over 2 years. I think it is time for a break!

As for the snacks, well….I forgot to take my usual photo! So here is a collage shot of all of my different snacks throughout the week! I think my favorite is probably still my grapes, chicken and cheese.

Now for our main dishes! I made 3 overall this week, 2 for Draz and I to have and one that was specifically for me to have for my work lunches. Overall, everything turned out wonderful! For the both of us: Slow Cooker Italian Red Pepper Chicken and Healthy Kung Pao Chicken. For Draz’s servings, I paired it with jasmine rice. Mine I served over steamed cauliflower rice! Both of these dishes turned out wonderful, though I think my favorite for the week was the Kung Pao Chicken. The one change I would make for next time – doubling the sauce for the Kung Pao Chicken! I love things to be a little more saucy and there wasn’t nearly enough with a large serving of cauliflower rice 🙂

For my lunch dish, a new recipe this week – One Pan Roasted Chicken and Vegetables. Funny thing…I actually originally intended to make this with green beans, a bit of bell pepper and sweet potato for the veggies. Only to get started with the cooking and realize that I was out of sweet potatoes! So instead, I ended up with more bell pepper and some onion. It was very good nonetheless, but next time I would definitely love to add sweet potatoes to the mix!

Here is the macros breakdown for this week’s main dishes!

Want to make this for yourself? Get your free downloadable grocery list for the main dishes here!

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Do you follow a particular practice for your food, like IIFYM? Have you had to make changes to your meal prep to make it work better for you? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

I know this seems cliche, but it seems like this year is just FLYING! Just in the past 6 months there have been so many developments! Most weeks are a flurry of activities and work, but in the best way. And I’m proud to say that I’m making pretty good progress on my goals so far!

Checking in on your goals is SO important to actually achieving them! You know the cycle – we set our goals for the year, get really into them for a month or two and then…life gets distracting. Suddenly, we are only a few months away from the end of the year and realizing that we haven’t made any progress. We rush to get some things done and then set new goals for the following year, convinced that next year will be different!

It doesn’t have to be like that! By scheduling in regular check-ins throughout your year, you can remind yourself as to what your “big picture” goals are and make more progress! In all honesty, I probably should have scheduled a few more check-ins than I actually did…maybe I should start checking in on them once every month or two?

Anyways, things have been very exciting here. In some ways, not much has changed since January. But in other ways, A LOT has!

2017 Highlights so far!

I got my very own kiln! I now am in control of all aspects of my jewelry making and I couldn’t be happier about it.

My new online shop for my jewelry TODAY!!! It is a brand new amazing site – a curated marketplace for handmade goods. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

My main job went from full-time to part time. It was a little scary, but it’s going okay so far.

I decided to invest in myself and get an online personal trainer.

I’m now a contributing writer over at Organize Yourself Skinny. This is something I never even really dreamed of, so I’m still kinda in shock over it! I so happy it happened though, and I can’t wait to keep writing over there twice a month!

2017 Goals

Personal Goals:

Get certified in at least 3 different fitness classes. – So far, this has not really happened. Working overnights makes getting actual certifications hard. However, I am set up to do a Tabata bootcamp course as a pre-session to BlogFest next month! Plus, while the rest of the classes during IDEAworld won’t be actual certifications, they will be very educational!

Complete a chin-up – I am working towards this! So far, no success, but I’m hoping that the personal training will help with that.

Business Goals:

Sell 240+ pieces – Well, I haven’t achieved this one yet, but I am making headway! I know 45 pieces isn’t quite 240, but the Boone Farmer’s Market starts today, my new online store launches today too and I have a few other things in the works. It’s still possible! And even if I don’t sell all 240, I’m really proud of how this year has gone.

Sell at 6+ craft markets (along with 2 weekly farmers’ markets) – Yes! With one slight change. I decided that 2 farmers’ markets a week was going to be a bit much for my first year, so I am just doing the one. Next year I plan on adding another!

Buy my own kiln. – YES!! Done and loving it

Blog Goals:

Have at least 5 guest posts on my blog. – Yup! My monthly Finding Fitness series is going great! I am so enjoying being able to bring you these other fitness journeys and sharing their knowledge with you with their corresponding guest posts too! You can find all of the posts to date here.

Write at least 5 guest posts for others. – Getting there. This new contributing writer position is helping me meet this goal!

Finish and release my Meal Prep E-book! – Ok…I honestly haven’t worked on this in a couple of months. I do need and want to refocus on it, and I will. The jewelry business kinda took over, focus-wise, for the past couple of months.

Collaborate with one company for a post, giveaway or in some other way. – I collaborated with Plum Paper to bring you a review of their planners and my thoughts on it. You can check out that post here. If you aren’t happy with your current planner, I heavily suggest checking them out! Mine is wonderful!

I have to say, after giving my 2017 goals a review, I’m pretty happy with my progress so far! I do have some things to work on, and a few things that kinda fell to the side, but overall, not bad!

Have you checked in on your goals lately? How are you doing on your 2017 goals? Any tips for others working to achieve their own goals? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! I know not everyone gets a long weekend, but either way, I hope you are enjoying your holiday! This week’s meal prep is a relatively simple one. Draz and I still had some leftovers from the previous week, plus a few less meals that we would be eating homemade, so I didn’t make as much this week.

I did, however, try a new recipe that turned out amazing! Enjoy!

Draz and I both still had some protein balls left, so snacks and salads this week were pretty simple. I’m still loving the addition of the rotisserie chicken lunchmeat to go with my grapes and cheese. It definitely helps keep me full longer! My other newer snack is celery with peanut butter, which I’m really enjoying as well. I do wish that the whole “peanut butter at the bottom of the jar” would have worked better, but oh well…It works just fine taking a separate tiny container of peanut butter! Hard-boiled eggs finish off this week’s snacks and are usually what I have before heading to the gym after work.

Salads this week were still based off of this Cheeseburger-inspired recipe and turned out wonderful. Since I made a couple less than usual, these were a bit more meaty than normal (not a bad thing!)

For our main dishes, Draz and I each had our own this week. For Draz, he asked for Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta, one of his favorites. One thing I like about making this recipe is that it works perfect to make it with another cabbage-based dish. So I ended up finding a new one for me to try this week and I LOVED it!

This Fried Cabbage and Kielbasa dish was hearty and delicious, plus high in protein! I will definitely be making this again! I usually had mine with some cottage cheese on the side and it was a very filling meal, even with the main dish being so low in calories! One thing to note for this dish – I didn’t realize until I was already cooking that I was out of white wine vinegar. So I used rice vinegar instead!

Here are the macros for this week’s main dishes:

Want to try out this simple meal prep for yourself? Get your grocery list for these two main dishes here!

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Have you tried any new recipes? What is your favorite cabbage recipe? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

I know it’s been a couple of week’s since you have really heard from me. Things have been changing a lot here and it’s kinda thrown my schedule into chaos. And if you’ve been here with me for long, you know how much I thrive on routine! But things are finally settling down here and falling into a new routine, so hopefully I won’t have any more long absences anytime soon!

Even with the chaos of the past few weeks, meal prep has been one of the main things that has helped me to keep the changes from becoming too overwhelming. I don’t always do well with rapid change, but knowing that I had our food ready and easy for us to grab helped a lot! This week’s meal prep was no different, with it’s high protein snacks and filling main dishes. Enjoy!!

Along with all the changes that have been going on for me personally, I made some changes to my snacks as well! With a focus on them being filling and full of protein, I added in some rotisserie chicken lunchmeat with my grapes and cheese for my first snack of the day. For my second one, celery with peanut butter!

This is actually the second week that I have done these new snacks and I’m really liking them. Hard-boiled eggs, a couple types of protein balls finish out the snacks and I also made a big back of our breakfast burritos and some mason jar salads inspired by this recipe!

I have learned one thing though, when it came to my celery snack. All over Pinterest you can see portable snacks and one of those is celery in a small mason jar with peanut butter already at the bottom. The first week I made these I gave that a try….did NOT work well for me haha. It was very difficult to really dip the celery in the peanut butter and made for more frustration than the snack is worth.

This week, I put the celery in the mason jars again, but just for ease of storage. I put a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter in tiny containers. Then I grabbed one of those each day along with our other food. It worked so much better! So while this does create a little more dishes, it’s well worth it in my opinion.

Out of the 3, the Enchiladas take the most work, but the flavor makes them well worth it! If you like this one like we do, you can cut down on the time it takes in the future by making a larger batch of shredded chicken. You can then freezing it into the amounts you need for this recipe! I like seasoning mine with some cumin, paprika and chili powder and slow cooking a big batch to shred. Tastes delicious and really cuts down on the time and dishes for making it in the future.

Hey everyone! I’m super excited to bring you this month’s Finding Fitness! Jen from Burpees for Breakfast is someone I discovered relatively recently, but is so inspirational! As you might remember, I’ve been getting more into weightlifting lately. Well, here is someone who definitely believes that girls can lift heavy! I love her focus on a healthy mindset and on weightlifting and am so happy to get to share her with all of you. Finding Fitness is all about sharing others experiences in their fitness journey with the hopes of inspiring you on your own journey!

Enjoy!

Background: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

I help women fit healthy living into their everyday life. I’m a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, nutrition coach and blogger. While I have my own business, I work full time in corporate wellness. I’m from a small town in Indiana and currently live in a smaller one with my husband and fur child, Oscar. I’m a huge fan of coffee and kombucha, pancakes and sushi. I love the beach and dream of living by it some day. Friends is my all-time favorite show, followed closely by How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Rec and New Girl. Currently, I’m slightly obsessed with the Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack. And of course, I love all things fitness, nutrition and mindset!

How did your fitness journey start? What motivated the change? Along with that, what has kept you interested?

I started running the summer of my senior year of college to keep up with the other interns I was working with. Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying it. I continued running for a few years post college and eventually started to incorporate HIIT workouts, using the Nike Training Club app. During this time, I was dealing with some pretty difficult gut issues. It took a journey to heal my gut to really motivate me to change. I started eating better and working out smarter. The change I experienced with my gut healing journey has motivated me to keep going. In the past 4 years, I’ve made healthy living a lifestyle and I honestly can’t image it any other way. I love how I feel when I take care of my body, so it really only takes a couple days of not eating so well to get me back on track! If anyone is interested, they can read more about my gut healing journey here.

What has been your biggest challenge in your fitness journey and how have you dealt with it?

Understanding that rest days are necessary AND finding a form of fitness that I love. When I first started, I worked out 7 days a week and would feel back every time I had to skip or had to take an off day. Now, I can have weeks where I only workout twice. The key was finding balance and experimenting with different things. It was a lot of trial and error, but it was worth it!

Have you had any setbacks since starting your fitness journey? If so, how did you deal with them?

I’m a type-a, overachiever, let-me-do-all-the-things kind of girl. This does not always work well for the body. I’ve dealt with gut issues and adrenal fatigue twice. The last time was in early 2016 and I actually just stopped working out all together. This break, while tough, but so important. It helped me figure out why I wanted to workout, what types of workouts my body enjoyed and helped me identify how fitness could fit into my life.

What achievement are you the most proud of?

Starting my own business was a pretty big deal and I’m proud of the fact that I did it AND still do it! On the fitness side of things, I just PR’d my deadlift at 205# and finally nailed my pull-up. I’m at 4 – 5 in a row right now and working on 6+.

Outside of the physical, what have been some significant changes brought on by your fitness journey?

Learning to love my body. A few years ago, my husband challenged me to lift weights for 2 months. I was a cardio queen and lifting had no appeal to me. However, lifting ended up changing my life and view of my body. Muscles started popping up and I got curves. With my history of digestive and hormonal issues, I noticed huge changes in this department as well. I credit lifting to helping me fully embrace and love my body.

What are you working towards now? What are your goals and dreams, fitness-wise?

Right now, I’m not working on much. With the summer, I tend to have trouble staying consistent at the gym because I want to be outside doing activities. So, this time of year I’m in maintenance mode. I am working on my back squat goal, hoping to hit my 225# deadlift goal and working pull-ups. Once June hits, I’ll likely just focus on maintenance and knocking out more pull-ups!
I guess my long term dream as of recent would be to bust out pull-ups like the people on Bar Starz!

What does a typical training week look like?

I usually aim for 3 – 4 days of workouts each week. Monday is typically Leg Day and I focus on squats. I usually do an upper body focus, deadlift / back day and a HIIT day. Now that summer is around the corner, I tend to enjoy workouts outside. I will sometimes skip the gym in favor of long walks or playing tennis with my husband.

What does an average day of eating look like for you?

As much as possible, I start my day with a big mason jar of water and a cup of warm lemon water with collagen. I usually have a fat + protein + veggie heavy breakfast. After lots of experimenting, I find my body does best with this ratio. Occasionally, I’ll throw in a carb like half a banana. I love coffee, so I drink at least 1 cup most days, usually with a scoop of collagen. Lunch is a typically homemade and will include a carb, fat, protein and veggies. I like to workout after work, so depending on the workout, if I need a snack, I’ll have a little carb / protein 1 ½ – 2 hours prior to my workout. I have Creatine/half a EAA scoop for my workout. Rather than a post workout snack, we typically have dinner, which is more carb heavy! I love chips, so if I have an evening snack, I like to have those. Boulder Canyon is my favorite brand!

Do you take any supplements? If so, could you tell us a little about what ones and why? If not, why not?

What works for me and my body is taking the following supplements. This might not work for everyone AND some people might need more/less. I use supplements to enhance my diet, not replace.
EPA / DHA or Fish oil for inflammation. I have asthma, so I like to reduce inflammation as much as possible. Magnesium for gut health and muscle recovery. Vitamin D helps my mood and my skin. Probiotic for gut health. Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides for gut, skin, hair, nail and joint health. Superfood Greens (occasionally) for extra support. Protein Powder (occasionally) for workout recovery or a treat. EAA for muscle recovery. Creatine workout performance.

What is your favorite exercise? Your least favorite?

I love lifting and HIIT workouts. Favorite exercise move is probably a deadlift – pretty much any variation. My least favorite exercise is probably side plank…only because I’m not very great at it!

What do you do if you find your motivation lacking?

If I’m lacking fitness motivation, I figure out if I’m enjoying my workouts. If I’m not, I’ll either switch it up or take a break from working out. In the nutrition department, I’ll try new recipes out or make simple meals that require little creativity. For other areas, I like to journal through my thoughts and try to figure out what’s going on that way. Usually just writing down my thoughts helps my mood shift.

How do you balance fitness with work/life/social/etc? How do you “find the time” to workout?

Moving my body is a priority, so I make time for it. Moving and nourishing my body are my top priorities and help me feel my best. With all the things I have going on, being able to full give myself to the projects and people in my life is important. If I want to be able to do that, I move and eat well. Some days are ‘healthier’ than others. I’ve learned to just lighten up and give myself grace, instead of being obsessive and strict, making sure I do things perfectly everyday.

What are your top 3 tips for someone just starting their fitness journey?

Just start moving. Walking is a highly discounted form of fitness. For people that have maybe never worked out before, walking is a great place to start.

Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals. If you have a SMART goal, it’s more likely you will stick with it!

Start at your current level of fitness. If you are just starting your journey, it’s unlikely that starting out with a 200# deadlift is the best option. Start with the basics, master them, then move on from there.
I’ll also add: Find something you enjoy. If you start running just because other people are, but you hate it, it’s unlikely you will stick with it. Doing something YOU enjoy is the key to consistency.

Anything else you want to share?

I recently started a free Facebook group called The Burpees for Breakfast Squad! It’s a community for health-minded women to chat about wellness topics and offer support! I’d love for anyone interested to join us.

Sara here: Jen, thank you so much with sharing all of that awesome information with us! Guys, I hope you enjoyed getting to know Jen and hearing about about her journey. I love how many different ways that we come to fitness in our lives and I hope you are being inspired by all the different stories being shared in my Finding Fitness series!

Jen Elliott helps women fit healthy living into their everyday life. She is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, group fitness instructor, blogger, dog mom and girlboss behind Burpees for Breakfast. Her passion is educating, equipping and inspiring women with simple, smart and sustainable solutions for healthy living. On her blog, she talks all things fitness, nutrition, mindset, self-care, body love and more.

Hey everyone! I hope you are having a lovely weekend! This has kinda been a weird and hectic week for me, so I’m glad that I kept meal prep pretty simple. With trying to get used to my new schedule and preparing for upcoming markets, I’ve been pretty busy here. This hearty and healthy meal prep definitely helped me keep on track while I was on the go!

That’s it for this week! Sorry for this one being so brief, but I’m honestly still pretty exhausted from the market yesterday. This week’s meal prep definitely helped me get through the craziness though. How has meal prep helped your life lately? I would love to hear about it, so please leave a comment below!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely week! I know I did, and that was in part to having this delicious meal prep to enjoy every day when I got home! As you might remember from last week’s post, things have been a bit stressful here. Having our meals taken care of is one less thing that I have to worry about. That I got to try 2 new recipes this week that both turned out AMAZING just makes things even better.

Enjoy!

Nothing really new about our snacks and my salads. I am really loving these new-ish snacks right now, though I might look at adding to them soon! For right now, I’m just sticking to these Quinoa Omelette Bites and No-Crust Pizza Bites. And these salads are quickly becoming my new favorite! I think I’ve almost gotten them just the way I like them, so keep tuned for an upcoming recipe post 🙂

The real excitement this week is the main dishes. Draz asked for more Skinny Chicken Enchiladas, so those got added to the list. But with all the change-ups happening, I thought I would have some fun and try a couple new recipes. Both of these are really quick and easy to make, which makes them even more perfect for meal prep!

First up, Slow Cooker Chicken Curry. This was so easy to toss into the slow cooker and go about the rest of my prep. I cooked it for about 6 hours and then just shredded the chicken instead of cutting it up. It worked perfectly! This curry even got Draz’s approval, which doesn’t happen often! He likes curry but is more particular about it than I am. This one is being added to our “make again” list!

The other new dish of the week was Healthy Baked Chicken Italian Sausage and Peppers. Now, while I enjoyed the curry a lot, this one was my favorite this week! SO tasty! I used 2 packages of Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage that had 4 links each, and roughly 4-5 bell peppers. This ended up being put on 2 sheet pans, which worked out perfect. I love how simple, yet flavorful this dish is and we will definitely be having this one again soon!

For both of the new dishes, Draz had his with brown rice and I had mine with riced cauliflower. I’m really loving that frozen riced cauliflower I mentioned in last week’s post. I can honestly say I will probably be having this one a few times a week for the foreseeable future!

This week I want to welcome back Jo from Fallen Angel Fitness! If you missed her Finding Fitness interview from a couple of weeks ago, make sure to check it out! Negative thinking is something I have fought with for a long time, so I’m especially excited for Jo to share her thoughts on it.

Enjoy!

The mind is extremely powerful and self-talk can often influence the decisions we make. Ever heard the saying “If you tell yourself something often enough you’ll believe it”? There’s real truth in this.

Let me give an example from my weight training.

Beating the bar

When I was attempting a Personal Record (PR) on my squat some weeks ago, all I could think about was the weight on the bar even though it was just a few lbs heavier than what I’d lifted before.

The more I thought about it the more the doubts started creeping in. I told myself I was probably going to miss the lift and the more I thought this the more anxious I became. The weight ended up becoming the biggest thing in my mind as opposed to what I could do to make sure I made the lift!

To combat my preoccupation with the weight I found a way of distracting my mind. It has taken me some months to recognise that this works!

What I do is run through the mental ‘cues’ for each lift in my head. My mental cues for squat are that my knees need to go out at the bottom and I then explode on the way back up. I repeat these cues (e.g., “Knees out, explode up”) over and over in my head just before I attempt the lift.

This technique means there’s no room for me to worry about the weight or for doubt to set in.

What I’ve learnt through this process is that “It’s not necessarily the weight you’re lifting but the way you’re mentally approaching it that matters”.

Ways to deal with negative self-talk

I’m going to apply my weight lifting ‘mantra’ above to other areas of fitness. In fact, you could apply this to any goal that you’re trying to work on or problem you’re experiencing.

It’s not necessarily about [the goal/problem], but the way you’re approaching [the goal/problem] that matters.

‘The goal’ could be anything, for example, losing/gaining weight, or going to the gym more often. The main point is that negative thinking is one of the surest ways of derailing your goals.

Right at the beginning I mentioned the phrase “If you tell yourself something often enough you’ll believe it”, well use that principle to start telling yourself that you can achieve what you set out to do!

I’m sure we all experience negative self-talk and doubts. That’s okay. The problem isn’t so much that you have the thoughts in the first place, it’s how you deal with them that matters.

Here are some ideas for how to combat negative self-talk. Everyone is different so not all of these methods may work for you, but that’s alright. If you find one that works then stick with it!

Focus on the solution rather than the problem. So, you might want to lose weight but your thoughts tend to be things like “I’m fat and useless, I’ll always be like this”. Turn this around and start thinking “I know I’m XXlbs overweight, but if I follow my diet and exercise plan then the weight will steadily come off”. This was what I did with my squats. Instead of thinking about the heavy weight, I focused on how I was going to lift it!

Ask yourself “What would my best friend say?”Us humans have a nasty habit of being way harder on ourselves than we need to be. Imagine having a conversation with your best friend or someone you trust. What would they say in response to your negative self-talk? I bet it’s not nearly as harsh as they way you talk to yourself!

Accept your flaws. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything about the problem you’re concerned about, but be realistic because and accept that no one is perfect. We’re all a work in progress and whilst you might not reach your goals overnight, you will get there with perseverance and dedication. There are no quick fixes!

Use your experience.Think about a time in your life that was particularly difficult. How did you deal with what was happening? What was good about how you dealt with it? What could you do differently next time? Every experience is a chance to learn; take your learning and apply this to new problems/situations.

Distract yourself. Sometimes we just need to distract ourselves to stop the mind from wandering onto negative things. Often when we have time on our hands this is an opportunity to think…a little too much! Distract yourself with doing other activities…perhaps you have some errands to run, chores to do, or go out and see some friends. Do whatever works to help take your mind off the negative self-talk.

Ultimately, you are in control

Remember, you are more than capable of achieving what you want to do. The mind is a powerful thing and can affect how you go about working through problems. It can also influence whether or not you actually tackle your problems in the first place.

But you should also remember that you are in control of your mind; it’s your mind after all, and only you can change the thoughts you’re thinking.

Rather than focusing on the problem, think about the ways in which you can work through it. Set your mind to what needs to be done and plan how you will achieve your goal. If you experience any negative self-talk then try the techniques above and send those thoughts packing!

I hope this post has been useful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Sara here: Jo, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful post with us! Everyone, I definitely encourage you to go check out Jo’s blog and her social media. She is so inspiring!

Jo is a trainee psychologist from the UK who likes to lift heavy weights and is training for her first powerlifting meet. Her blog merges her love of iron and her interest in the human mind by relating elements of psychology to different areas of fitness in order to help readers get the most out of their fitness journeys.